Gun.



I. H. RODEHAVER.

GUN.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 7, 1911.

1,042, 1 45, Patented Oct. 22, 1912.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1,

I. H. RODEHAVER.

GUN.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 7, 1911.

Patented 0 0t.22,1912.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 1e srrns ATNT rrro.

ISAAC HARRISON RODEI-IAVEB, OF EAST AUBURN, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-- HALF TO JAMES TOMAN, 0F SUTTER CREEK, CALIFORNIA.

GUN.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 22,1912.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ISAAC I-I. RoDnHAvER, a citizen of the United States, residing at East Auburn, in the county of Placer and State of California, have invented new and useful Improvements in Guns, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to firearms, and particularly to an action operative in a gun of the type having two superposed barrels.

The object of the present invention is to provide a substantial, reliable action designed to discharge one or the other of superposed barrels which may be of suitable caliber; means being provided for manual operation for the selection of one or the other of the barrels, these being so arranged as to have their charges fired by a single hammer.

It is an object of the invention to provide in combination with a double-barreled gun having a revolving cylinder, means for revolving the cylinder, and a device for forcing the cylinder forward against the adj acent or inner ends of the barrels so as to prevent the loss of explosive force by the escape of gases, laterally, between the jointure at the barrel ends and the front end of the cylinder; means being provided to maintain the cylinder in its forward position during the fall of the hammer.

The invention consists of the parts and the construction and combination of parts as hereinafter more fully described and claimed, having reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a side elevation partly in section of the gun in cocked condition. Fig. 2 is a similar view of the gun in firing position. Fig. 3 is a cross section on line 3-8, Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the trigger and sear. Fig. 5 is an end view of the cylinder, showing the radially alined chambers of difi'erent sizes.

In the present embodiment of my invention, 2 represents an action case of a gun, having in this instance two barrels 3 and 4, the former of which is the larger and may discharge shot cartridges while the lower or smaller barrel 4 may discharge rifle cartridges. These barrels are shown as radially disposed relative to a spindle 5 in the casing :2, upon which is revoluble a cylinder 6 of suitable design and proportion, having, as shown in Fig. 5, a series of circularly arranged chambers Nearer the center of the cylinder 6 is arranged a circular series of chambers S of smaller diameter than the chambers 7; the inner being adapted to receive rifle cartridges and the outer chambers being adapted to receive shot cartridges, thus enabling the firearm to be used as desired as a shot gun or rifle.

The relative positions of the innermost and outermost chambers 7 and 8 are shown as radial with relation to the spindle 5 so that when the cylinder is turned to a given position in the casing 2, a large and a small chamber are alined in front of upper and lower firing-pins 9 and 10 respectively; these being of suitable design and shown as retracted by respective springs 9 and 10.

The firing-pins 9 and 10 project slightly beyond the rear, transverse wall of the casing 2, and pivoted between the firing-pins 9 and 10 there is a tappet ll turnable about a pivot 12 to assume a posit-ion over the outer end of one or the other of the firingpins; in Fig. 2 the tappet is shown as adj usted against the upper firing-pin 9.

Any suitable means may be employed for maintaining the tappet in its adjusted position after manual adjustment, and as here shown a small detent 18 is projected by a spring 14 so as to press against the contiguous face of the tappet 11 with suflicient force to prevent it from swinging about its fulcrum 12.

hen either of the chambers 6 or 7 is to be fired, when loaded, the operator of the firearm adjusts the tappet 11 over that particular firing-pin which is in axial aline ment with the chamber he desires to discharge, and thereafter the tappet will remain in such adjustment until the operator elects differently.

The firing-pins are subjected to a blow when the tappet is impinged by a hammer 15, havin upper and lower facets 16 and 17 ongageable at one time or another with the tappet 11; that is to say, that if the tappet 11 be adjusted, as shown in Fig. 2, the facet 16 of the hammer will impinge upon the tappet, thus driving the firingpin 9. If the tappet 11 be turned downwardly adjacent to the firing-pin 10, then the facet 17 of the hammer 15 will drive the firing-pin 10; the thickness of the tappet 11 being suflicient to so space the adjacent faces of the firingpins and their respective hammer facets that only one of the firing-pins will be driven by a blow from the hammer, the other facet not having sufficient movement to engage its adjacent firing-pin due to the great space therebetween.

The hammer is turnable about an axle or bearing 18 upon which is also'mounted a pawl 19, of suitable design, projecting forwardly and having its swinging end adapted to engage a ratchet 20 formed upon or attached to the rear end of the cylinder. There is mounted on one side of the cylinder pawl 19 a lever 21 having a pin 22 projecting through a slot 23 in the pawl 19; the lever 21 being provided with a cam end or face 24 which is turnable about and partly supported upon a pin 25 in the casing 2.

The rear end of the lever 21 is adapted to be engaged by a shoulder 26 projecting forwardly from the hammer 15 adjacent to its fulcrum so that as the hammer 15 is swung backwardly its shoulder 26 swings and lifts the adjacent portion of the lever 21 so as to carry the cam 24 about its pivot 25; the cam engaging and forcing ahead a button 27, reacting against the adj aoent end of the cylinder structure 6, thus forcing the latter forward so that the chambers 7 and 8 will be positively alined with their respective barrels 34, which are shown as being slightly tapered on their inner ends and projecting somewhat from the wall of the casing 2. The forward ends of the chambers 7 and 8 are countersunk slightly so as to set firmly upon the projecting conical shoulders 3 of the barrel ends 4.

During the backward movement of the hammer 15 with which the lever 21 is simultaneously moved to react against the button 27 the forward end of the cylinder pawl 19 will be lifted by reason of the upward swinging of the pin 22 in slot 23 of the pawl, thus turning the cylinder 6 on its bearing 5 to aline the next successive radial series of chambers 7 and 8 with the firing-pins.

When the hammer 15 is moved to the full cocked position, indicated in Fig. 1, the sear 30 operated by its spring 31 snaps into engagement with a shoulder 32, thereby restraining the hammer against firing stroke by its spring 15. When in the full cocked position, Fig. 1, the hammer releases a cylintier-locking lever 33 which is pivoted at 34 and the forward end of which is designed to engage with notches 34 formed on the rear end of the cylinder 6; the lever 33 being adapted to lock the cylinder 6 in its firing position, as shown in Fig. 2, when the hammer 15 is approaching and in firing position, at which time the forward end of the cylinder-lock 33 is in positive engagement with the notches 34.

The lever 33 is shown as connected by a spring 35 to the cylinder-thrusting lever 21; the function of the spring 35 being to swing the lever 33 to unlock the cylinder 6 as the hammer is cooked and to draw down its connected lever 21 as the hammer falls.

In order to prevent the releasing of the forwardly thrust cylinder by its cam 24 during the fall of the hammer 15 by the contraction of the spring 35, I interpose a latch 36 which is pivoted at 37 the upper end of the latch being designed to swing forwardly and engage the upwardly projected end of the lever 21. Normally the latch 36, which is pushed forwardly by a spring 37, is retained in a retracted position which is sufficient to permit the upward swinging of the arm 21 as the hammer is cooked. The latch 36 is held retracted by engagement with the forwardly projecting portion of the trigger 38 to which the sear 30 is connected; the trigger being mounted upon a fulcrum 39.

As the hammer is being cooked, it will move the lever 21 upward, the end of this swinging freely pastthe retracted latch 36 to the position shown in Fig. 1. operator of the gun pulls the trigger 38 its initial movement allows the latch 36 to press forwardly to dotted line position in Fig. 1 where it will engage and sustain the lever AS the 21 in its operative cylinder-forcing position a so that after further movement of the trigger 38 the hammer 15 falls; the lever 21 be ing no longer supported by the arm 26 of the hammer now rests upon the operative latch 36 and the cam 24 is still effective to force the cylinder 6 forwardly upon the conical ends 3 and 4.

With the tappet 11 adjusted in the posit1on shown in Fig. 2 the hammer when released will fall thereon and drive the firingpin 9 to discharge a cartridge in the cylinder chamber 7 the cartridge in the lowermost chamber 8 being protected against discharge by reason of the failure of the hammer facet 17 to strike the firing-pin 10.

When the arm has been discharged, the

operator releases pressure from the trigger 38, thls swinging forward due to its spring 31, and will again engage the adjacent portion of the latch 36 swinging its upper end outwardly releasing the cam arm 21 which will fall due to the contraction of its connecting spring 35. 7

It willthus be seen that the action constructed in the manner disclosed enables the tight joint is made between its forward end and the ends of the barrels the loss of pressure is overcome.

An important feature of this construction is that the several cartridge chambers 7 and 8 of the cylinder are arranged radially, thus enabling me to devise or use a simple revolving device for the cylinder 6, since by the peculiar construction of the firing mechanism, including the tappet 11, there will be no danger of both of the chambers, as 7 and 8, being discharged simultaneously, there fore, I can more twoloaded chambers be-V neath the hammer at one time without possibly discharging more than one of them.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. The combination in a gun, of a casing, a cylinder revoluble therein, and means for pressing the cylinder forward against the casing to close the space therebetween at the front, said means including a cam and a gun hammer, said cam being pivoted near its forward end and having a rear extension and said hammer having a shoulder to engage said extension.

2. The combination in a firearm, of an action case, a barrel thereon, a revoluble cylinder having a face adjacent to the barrel end, a firing hammer, and a device act-uated by the hammer to seat the cylinder against the barrel end to close the joint, said device comprising a cam pivoted near its forward end and having a rear extension, said hammer having a shoulder to engage under the rear extension of the cam to thereby rock the cam about its pivot.

3. The combination in a firearm, of an action case, a barrel thereon, a revoluble cylinder having a face adjacent to the barrel end, a firing hammer, a device actuatedby the hammer to seat the cylinder against the barrel end to close the oint, said device com prising a cam pivoted near its forward end and having a rear extension, said hammer having a shoulder to engage under the rear extension of the cam and rock the cam about its pivot, and a latch to sustain the device during the fall of the hammer.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ISAAC HARRISON RODEHAVER.

Vitnesses JAMES B. MEREDITH, F. K. DERELEY.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G. 

